Is there any reason to calibrate a photo-editing monitor below 80 cd/m²?
Asked 1/17/2020
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I often see 80 cd/m² recommended as a monitor brightness target for editing photos in a dark room. Is there ever a practical reason for photo work to set a display much darker than that, such as 40 or even 20 cd/m²?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
6y ago
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No. The purpose of a viewing screen is to emulate the human vision system and make it easier for you to discern details. If you're going to go to print then you need a screen that can show you or emulate the approximate details of that print.
I used to work with screens that were calibrated for radiological purposes. Think medical. Their calibrations were around 0.5 cd/m2 on the low end up to 100 cd/m2 on the high end. However they really needed to be calibrated up to about 300cd/m2 to take full advantage of how the eye perceives both color and luminance.
Going outside of the range simply blocks up the highlights and shadows, and puts additional strain on your eye as it adjusts to the large differences.
The rest of the room also has an impact on your ability to adjust and perceive color, so keeping that 'in spec' as well is important. It'll make your editing day easier.
Originally by user85056. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user85056
6y ago
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Generally, no. For photo editing, the display should help your eyes reliably judge detail, tone, and color, and extremely low brightness works against that.
A monitor is typically calibrated to approximate how images will be seen and, if you print, to better match the visual appearance of the print. Going much below a common dark-room target like 80 cd/m² can make shadows and highlights harder to evaluate, reduce useful visible range, and increase eye strain as your vision adapts.
Very low luminance ranges may exist in specialized fields such as medical imaging, but that does not make them appropriate for normal photo editing. The ambient light in the room also matters: your monitor brightness should be chosen in relation to the viewing environment, since room brightness affects perceived contrast and color.
So for photography work, there is usually no practical reason to calibrate a monitor as low as 40 or 20 cd/m².
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